Amrita RC Majumdar
Terri Jensen on her duty
Residents in our town are rallying to support Terri Jensen, the crossing guard featured on Oakville News, after she lost her husband, Stan King, on April 4. The next day, her close friends organized a fundraiser to help her navigate the crisis, and local parents are now mobilizing efforts to spread the word.
In her interview with Oakville News on Ontario's annual School Crossing Guard Appreciation Day last month, she shared how she met her late husband online and fell in love before moving from Ohio to Canada in 2006 to marry him. For the past 16 years, they managed an apartment complex in Bronte.
Visiting a family restaurant on Speers Road multiple times a week was almost a ritual for the couple over the last few years. Considering her heart-warming personality, Jensen became close to a group of servers in the restaurant, who are now family to her.
This group of friends organized a fundraiser on the crowdfunding platform, GoFundMe to raise $10,000 and "help her get some stability back in her life".
"I've known her for the past six years. She's an incredible person who has the rarest quality to flip any odd situation into a positive one. She is scared to lose her primary income through her late husband's job and eventually her residence too," Cindy Faria, one of the organizers, shared.
Faria recollected how the group of servers pulled in money to deliver Jensen a few free meals when she was attending to her sick husband in the hospital for the last few weeks.
The organizers and local parents who admire Jensen at her crossing guard duty are contacting the larger community via media, local networks and social media platforms to request a donation.
